Arangieskop Trail – 22-23 November 2014

This 2 day hike up and down the Langeberg mountains north of Robertson in the Dassieshoek Nature Reserve is a 9km 1200m climb on day 1, and a further 11km, 200m climb and 1500m descent on day 2.

Day 1:

The trail passed through Fynbos and  Protea fields on the upper reaches until a lovely hut is reached, carved into the mountain-side with stunning views overlooking the Koo Valley. We pitched or tent on the grass patch as we wanted to practice hiking with a tent and sleeping in it.

Day 2:

This day we summited Arangieskop Peak itself at 1700m above sea level. The peak was clear, and overlooked a sea of clouds below us. The decent was steep and radical, taking us 2 hours to do 2 kms! This is probably not the preferred route down as it was quite overgrown, but because it was Trailblazing at its best, it was our preferred route down (some hikers opt to descend the same route they came up on day 1)! This included some serious climbing out of one of the gorges.

We noticed spiders spinning their webs between the Proteas which only occurred at a certain height above sea level.

Finally, hungry and tired, we stopped at the last water point for lunch. No sooner had we unpacked our lunch, when we were attacked by a swarm of bees. What followed was a scurry up the hill, frantically trying to wave the bees away. The result – a sting in the behind for Lisa and one to the eye for Joseph! The last 5kms of the descent winds its way down the foothills of the mountain and past the Dassieshoek Dam.